One often complains that we lack anything original when it comes to movies or books. We find ourselves watching or reading the same story lines over and over again. The same clichés appear in almost everything these days. Similarly, we are bombarded by tropes. A trope is an element in a story that tends to get repeated. A very common trope is that of the revelation trope. The following revelation trope is a megatrope, where it is an overseeing trope used very often, however it also has mini-tropes that are used within the mega revelation trope. Elements of the mega revelation trope are the following; ignorant people are in an unacceptable situation when a prophet shares a message of redefinition and redemption despite opposition and sometimes betrayal, people must choose to follow the status quo or the revelation, and lives are changed as a result. This trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
From childhood, we have been presented with the revelation trope, as it was incorporated in some of the most basic childhood fables. In The Emperors New Clothes, by Hans Christian Anderson, two scoundrels choose to play a trick on the vain Emperor. They fool him into believing that they are tailors, who have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible to those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate it. When the scoundrels have finished “making” this piece for the Emperor, the Emperor is too afraid of being seen as stupid and incompetent, that he pretends to see a garment, that in actuality is not there. Because everyone else within the kingdom also fear being seen as stupid, they too pretend to see something that is not there. The people of the town had heard of the beautiful fabric and the amazing suit that was being made for the Emperor and they were anxious to see it. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade.
The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
In the movie Foxfire, the character Legs, arrives at the lead character, Maddy’s school. When the girls are in the bathroom and it is discovered that their science teacher has been sexually abusing some of them, Legs encourages the girls to stand up together. In this revelation, Legs is playing the role of the messenger/revealer. The unacceptable situation is the fact that the teacher has been taking advantage of the girls. The opposition during this revelation came from the cheerleaders at the school who were also in the bathroom, in on the conversation. They doubted the girls’ stories, and refused to believe that the teacher was doing such things. The drama that then occurred was the way the girls chose to solve the situation; by catching the teacher during the act and beating him up.
The movie The Matrix is also a prime example of the revelation trope. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it, is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. However, through to course of trying to show Neo the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him. In this, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo.
Revelations occur all throughout The Gospel of Mark. The most obvious being that of when Jesus learns that he is the son of God. “10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” Such a dramatic revelation is a typical trope. The heavens tear open and deliver a message. Through Jesus’ journey of delivering the message of God, he comes across the obstacle of the ignorant masses, who often doubt his ability to heal and help others.
As Jesus is dealing with his own new found power, the people he comes in contact with also experience similar revelations, as they now realize they are in the presence of God’s literal Son. Many revelations such as this occur during the course of the story. When Jesus has now just forgiven all the signs of a paralyzed man, thinkers who have watched the miracle doubt the possibility of Jesus being powerful enough to do this.
"6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?'
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take you mat and walk'? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.' So he said to the man, 11 'I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.' 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying 'We have never seen anything like this!' "
Here, the people have witnessed a true miracle by Jesus. This is a small revelation, had by those who doubted Jesus' powers and ability, however they came to their revelation as they saw Jesus heal the paralyzed man, as he got up and walked home.
The Gospel of Mark is very much an example of the revelation trope, and like many prophets within a revelation trope, Jesus is killed.
In the play, An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, a Doctor discovers bacteria within his towns water supply. Dr. Stockmann is the messenger within this play, as he tries to get the news out about the infected water supply. However, his brother, the Mayor, wants to avoid the news getting out, in fear that in order to fix the problem they must close down the water supply, and risk losing their tourist population. When the Doctor first approaches the people at the paper, they are completely willing to help him develop a strong following from the people of the town and to publish his manuscript in the next issue of the paper. However, when the mayor comes to the paper, he convinces them to publish a piece he has written instead. As more and more people begin to turn on the Doctor, the possibility of him being able to reach the public before the Mayor does, becomes more and more slim.
In 1976, the movie Network displayed much of the revelation trope. It’s about a television network that is struggling with ratings, and when the news anchor, Howard Beale, is told he is going to be fired, he has a breakdown, proclaiming on the live evening news that he will be committing suicide on live television during next weeks broadcast. The unstable situation arises from this, as the network realizes that they can develop very high ratings if they use Beale’s outbursts to their advantage. They do not care about his mental health, they are only concerned with their public image and getting higher ratings. Beale’s revelation comes to him one night as he lays in bed and begins to hear a voice. The voice tells Howard that it is his job to tell the people the truth, because he is on television and has the ability to reach millions. During the next broadcast, Howard begins the famous speech, in which he tells the people that it is their job to get out of their own little worlds and acknowledge what is going on in the world. That they are being fooled by the government and the networks, being treated as though their lives have no real value. He tells them to get out of their chairs, open the window, stick their heads out the window and yell “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”. This is when the ignorant masses have their own revelations; they adhere to Howard’s instructions, and voices yelling those famous words begin to echo everywhere.
The obstacle within this movie has to deal with the network, UBS, trying to turn Howard into a product. Diana, the woman who takes over the news, turns it into a circus, psychic and all. “T.V. is show biz, and even the news needs some showmanship” Diana proclaims. Howard continues delivering his messages to the people, telling them that television is not the truth and that in order to find the truth, they must turn to themselves. As the network continues to keep a hold on their new found fame, they neglect to notice Howard falling deeper and deeper into an obvious mental illness. During one show, Howard begins to discuss the illegal ties the owners of UBS, CCA, have with Saudi Arabia. After this, the network decides to take advantage of Howard's depleting mental health, and begin convincing him to change the message of the show. However, in the end, the network decides they no longer want to deal with Howard, and hire someone to assassinate Howard at the beginning of one of his broadcasts, because they believe it will be helpful for the ratings of the spin-off shows they plan to create.
The messenger within this movie was clearly Howard, and many others within the movie have their own personal revelations thanks to the commotion that surrounds Howard's new found fame. And like many other prophets, Howard can be viewed as mentally ill, and ends up killed.
Derrick Jensen, author of The Culture of Make Believe, can be seen as a prophet. His book is his message and those he hopes to spread his message to are the people who read his book. The unacceptable situation he wants to fix is the way we all currently live our lives. He discusses the way hatred has become embedded into our society. He begins with the most obvious of hatred within society by discussing hate groups. Jensen examines the way hatred has played a part in many different ways; through racism and the slave trade, South African apartheid, children sold into prostitution rings, police violence, consumerism, capitalism, the massacres of the Native Americans, and more. His goal is to reveal the patterns of hate within Western Civilization. He then goes even further, to proclaim that even relationships we have with others can be examples of hatred. He also dissects how technology has even furthered our hate.
Jensen is a prophet because he takes every day aspects of our lives and dissects how they are fueled by hatred. He presents the way we live our daily lives in a new way, showing how destructive we are without even recognizing it. It is in this way that Jensen is a prophet, for he presents the way we live in a new and unusual way, in hopes of helping us all develop better lives.
Jensens message is that in order to solve our destructive world, is to return back to simpler times, back when men were hunters and gatherers, and that if we do not, it will be the end of the world as we know it. He believes that the way we have grown to live is not at all the way humans should. That we must return back to humanity, and must relearn what it means to be human.
The revelation trope is even visible in songs. The song No Surprises by Radiohead, is revealing how unhappy people are because everyone has become robotic due to the ways of the government. The prophet is the band itself, and they project their message through the song. The first two verses go as follows;
A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal
You look so tired and unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide
The band wants people to realize how numb they have become to life. The unacceptable situation is the way people have all become so resistant to how they are feeling because of how society has become just a machine that everyone is working to help run. The solution Radiohead calls for is for people to join together and take down the government, for they have no interest in whether or not people are happy and they have no clue what people truly want in life.
The case with this song and it's message is contradictory. The song is portraying how almost numb people have become due to the government and society and that the people must speak for themselves. They are attacking corporate America, however by producing this song and becoming the well known band that they are, they are part of corporate America. They are producing things that people want to buy and that people will sing a long to. It's another part of the media and pop culture that they seem to be warning us of. Situations such as these make believing and willing to follow a message difficult because it appears many of them may just be for show. It makes one wonder whether or not revelations are sacred and valued things, or simply some schtick used by the media.
Many of the previously mentioned films and literature can be compared to one another to learn more about the use of the revelation trope. When comparing them, one can see the different minitropes within the revelation trope that are also often used.
In the movie Foxfire, the character Legs reveals the abuse some students are experiencing from the teacher, and she unveils the message that the women involved must join together and fight back. In Enemy of the people, the Doctor discovers bacteria in the baths and when he reveals it, those powerful, such as the mayor and those working at the newspaper, work to silence him for economic purposes. The doctor later on tries to speak to the people of the town himself, trying to convince them to help. In both the movie Foxfire and the play Enemy of The People, the revealer wants to help people join together and rise up against those in power. However, Legs is the only one that succeeds, while the Doctor becomes rejected by the society. Through these revelations, it becomes clear that people are more willing to accept a message or revelation that will empower them along with others, rather than one that requires them to change the comfortable lavish life they are used to. Legs offered a message of empowerment and sisterhood, while the Doctor offered a message that required the town to give up their tourist appeal, which meant a loss of money, and money needed in order to save the water. Those that were offered the message of empowerment that would help them rise against those in power, chose to act on the revelation, while those who were offered the message that required a change in their lavish economic lifestyle, resisted the message.
People may resist revelations because they are essentially being told that the way they are living is unacceptable in some way. They are being told that the life their parents and grandparents helped create for them is somehow bad and wrong. They think "What right does this person have to tell me how I should be living? This person knows nothing about me and how I am living my life, so what makes them so qualified to judge me?" It is in this way that society has become so helpless. People refuse to change how they live because we have all become so selfish and comfortable with our lives that we either a) don't really have any desire to change and/or b) don't even think it would be really possible.
In the Matrix, Morpheus sees Neo as “the one”. Morpheus appears to be the one in power on the ship and when it comes to fighting the agents or the machines. However, once he finds Neo, he almost bows to him as he teaches him, knowing that Neo has the ability to have amazing power. Similarly, in the Book of Mark, John the Baptist is seen as very powerful, for he has the ability to baptize people, which will allow them the forgiveness of their sins. However, John the Baptist then reveals that there will be one more powerful that will come after him. John the Baptist then baptizes Jesus, which almost makes one view John the Baptist as in a more powerful position then Jesus. During his baptism is when Jesus receives his message from God, learning that he is the Son of God. Had John not given Jesus the baptism, he would not have received his message. However, John continues to explain how he is almost unworthy of Jesus, saying that “the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie”. Often the prophet, who has the ability to give the message to the disciple, can be seen as more powerful and with a more direct connection with what is considered all powerful, i.e. God or the Oracle. However, once the disciple comes into play, the much more stronger Prophet now acts weaker and praises the Disciple and their power.
Similarly, the Prophet will often be willing to sacrifice themselves in order to save the disciple, for they see him as being much more powerful than they are. In the Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are very powerful and they have police officers with them. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. In Star Wars, when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which many on the ship stop to watch, which allows the rest of them try to get back to their ship. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. However, his sacrifice became much more important than just that. In fact, both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple.
When Morpheus allowed himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Previously, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely partake in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be, and how much the others on the ship warn him not to. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, we see Luke become more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way, some crash and some are destroyed. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan was killed, that Luke truly listened to the force, which is the message Obi-Wan had been trying to send him the entire time. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action and pursue the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet (Grandits).
The message within Derrick Jensen's The Culture of Make Believe critiques the current state of humanity and says that it is time for people to speak up on it. "If we are to do that, [return to our humanity] the first thing we must do is to see the inhumanity of our current system for what it is, and we must speak about it" (Jensen, page 602). Jensen wants to reveal to his readers how destructive we as a society have become.
This message is very similar to a revelation explained by Agent Smith in the Matrix. As Agent Smith sits and speaks to Morpheus as he keeps Morpheus chained up and connected to painful machines, he begins to describe a revelation he has had about humans. "Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure". Agent Smith is describing how destructive humans are, just s Derrick Jensen is. They share a very similar message, that being that humans have become wasteful and take advantage of the world we live in. We live greedily, and as Jensen discussed, almost no longer what makes a human, a human. We are supposed to be mammals, and yet, as Agent Smith describes, we act nothing like other mammals on the planet. We do not treat our world and environment the way other species do. Jensen and Agent Smith have a very similar message they are attempting to share, however they are coming from two very opposite positions. Jensen is viewed as one of the prophets, one of the "good guys" who is trying to make our world a better place. When people hear what Jensen has to say, they agree and want to act upon it as well. Yet, Agent Smith, who is depicted as the "bad guy" in the Matrix, has an almost identical message, however no one would be willing to act on his message, for how he has been presented in the revelation trope. He is the bad guy, therefore what he says should not be taken into account.
It appears that in the revelation trope, there is a point in which the bad guy/villain gives a reason behind their "badness". It is then that they suddenly appear as if they may have a good point. There comes a time in which the villain seems to be wise, yet no one is willing enough to side with them. Jensen is a prophet, therefore his word is good. Agent Smith is a villain, and his message is almost identical, but he has been presented to the audience as the villain, so no matter how much truth his words may hold, we will never side with him. It appears there will always be a moment in which the "villain" appears to have a meaningful and understandable theory of the world, yet he will always be defeated.
Revelation tropes are probably the most common trope for the fact that revelations are one of the most common things that people share. A revelation is not limited to any certain kind of person, and is able to come in many different shapes and sizes. A revelation is necessary in order to live a mature life.
The reason this trope may be so common among movies, literature and songs is because anyone can experience one, and not all revelations need to be huge dramatic events. Even the slightest change in ones outlook can be considered a revelation. Even the simple act of growing up and becoming and adult and realizing all of ones responsibilities can be considered a revelation. They are beneficial to how we life because they allow for a new view of life and the world around us. Even if the revelation may be something negative, it still allows us to become more aware of ourselves, lives, and realities. However, they also require us to give up our more naive views, and we may often miss those, for revelations require us to accept more responsibility for our life.
Because the revelation trope is so common within literature and film, the sacredness of the revelation may often lose value. It becomes more of a schtick as more and more people attempt to be viewed as masterful prophets.
The most important revelations are those that you are able to reveal to yourself. That way you can see how you have truly grown for you have helped yourself realize something new. To seek out a prophet may often lead to a false revelation, for you are anxious to discover something. It is often best to allow the prophet to come to you, for the best revelations occur without you realizing it is on its way.
Works Cited
Anderson, Hans Christian. The Emperor's New Clothes. Golden Press, New York. 1966
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress, Angelina Jolie. 1996
Grandits, Clea, 3/27/08. Personal Communication.
Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. Oxford University Press, USA. 1999
Jensen, Derrick. The Culture of Make Believe. Context Books, 2002
The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne. 1999
Network. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Perf. Faye Dunaway, William Holden. 1976
Radiohead, “No Surprises”. No Surprises. 1998.
Star Wars: A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford. 1977
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